Someday at Christmas
by night.nerd
Summary: Jemma Simmons bakes when stressed. Fitz finds her in a rather disheveled kitchen after finals, so he is rather perplexed as to what could be the source of her anxiety. After much rambling, she reveals to him that it is because her parents are disappointed in her lack of social expertise, especially dating, and he comes to a conclusion that might work out better than he hoped...


**Author's Note: **This is my Fitzsimmons Secret Santa present for hail-the-mighty-glow-cloud! I hope you enjoy it!

Prompt: Jemma bakes when stressed.

Also, props to whoever can find the hidden Spider-Man reference in here...

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><p>Fitz could still recall the first time he had encountered Simmons' frantic banking. It had been the week of midterms, and he had opened the door to her apartment to be faced with a wall of sugary aromas before the overwhelming scent crashed down upon him. When he entered further, surveying the disaster that the kitchen had become, he noticed piles of cookies on one side of the counter, cakes lining the other, and stacks of dishes overflowing the sink. It had taken them a mere few hours to give all the baked goods away to other students consumed by testing anxiety, and the time they spent doing that allowed some of her stress to ease. Even so, he found a batch of cookies waiting outside his apartment the next morning.<p>

The next time it happened, he managed to catch her as she was pouring copious amounts of flour into a baking bowl. She offered him an apologetic smile and scattered excuses, and he was beginning to realize the pattern. Jemma baked while stressed. He quickly learned that she had misplaced her laptop, and her urge to bake did not cease until they finally managed to locate it. The same thing happened when Simmons received word that her grandmother was sick, and the onslaught of baked goods continued until she was reassured that her grandmother was going to be okay.

They had just completed their finals after their third semester at the Academy, and when he walked into her dorm, he noticed an accumulation of cupcakes by the door. It wasn't exactly unexpected; Fitz could sympathize with how stressful their finals could be. However, he was rather taken aback when he noticed a trail of strewn ingredients as he made his way down her hallway. Finals were over, so what else could be the source of her apparent strain? Once he finally arrived in her kitchen, flour powdering the floor and speckled batter decorating the counter, he glanced around for her, quickly realizing she was nowhere to be found. "Simmons? Are you in here?"

"Pantry!" He stepped over to the smaller closet off the side of the kitchen, and she greeted him with a smile. However, he quickly noticed that something was off. Her smiles usually came much easier, and this one seemed a little forced in comparison. The fact that the kitchen was covered with the casualties of her desperate baking and she had some kind of icing in her hair only confirmed his suspicions.

"Jem? Is everything alright?"

"What? Yes! Of course it is. Everything's fine." However, the way she slightly bit her lip and glanced away told him it was precisely the opposite.

"Jem."

"It's just…" She took a deep breath, stepping out of the enclosed space of the pantry and into the kitchen, wiping her flour-dusted hands onto the apron before glancing up at him. "I'm going home for the holidays."

There was a pause between them before Fitz spoke again. "And?" She didn't talk much about her family, neither of them did, but from what she had told him, her parents seemed to be decent people. She sent them letters a few times a month, and they wrote back and sent care packages occasionally.

"They…" Simmons hesitated, which only caused Fitz to become even more concerned. "They don't exactly approve of my pursuit in science. I doubt they had even heard the word biochemistry before I told them I wanted to study it at a university, and then that was a whole other ordeal because most people in my hometown stay there. My parents wanted me to attend the local cookery school, so when I told them I wanted to study biochemistry somewhere else, you can imagine it didn't go over so well." He suddenly had the impulse to reach out and comfort her, but that would transcend all of the boundaries they had established so they could maintain their opposite-gender friendship. He shoved the urge aside. "It doesn't help that all they do is fret over how I should be settling down and preparing to have kids. I mean,_ really,_ I'm only eighteen years old. They weren't even married for another two years, and…" She stopped abruptly. "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

He nodded. It took him only a few brief moments to realize that he might have hurt her feelings by doing so, and he quickly corrected himself. "A bit, but it's alright." His gaze once again fell upon the various ingredients and the stacked cupcakes. Something told her that the stress of seeing her family wouldn't send her into this much of a baking frenzy. "Is there something else?"

As she began speaking once again, her nimble fingers began measuring butter and sugar before placing them together in a bowl. "It's just… when my parents asked me to come home for Christmas, I was planning on bringing Evan Williams home with me, we were dating at the time, and I told them that so they would hopefully stop nagging me about settling down." Her words blended together as she spoke, and she walked over to the refrigerator, pulling out eggs and then reaching into one of the higher cabinets for vanilla extract. "But now we're not dating anymore, and now I am going to spend the entire holidays hearing about how my choice in career has ruined my social life and how, because I plan on becoming a scientist, I will never have a husband or kids." The eggs were quickly cracked, and vanilla was dropped into the mixing bowl.

Fitz spoke as she reached for the beater and turning it on, meaning the vibrating hum obstructed his words. "What did you tell them exactly?"

"Hm?"

She turned off the device so she could better hear him, and the sudden silence caused him to pause, carefully thinking through the words. "What exactly did you say to your parents when you told them Evan Williams was coming home with you?"

Simmons gave him an odd look in response to his question, but she answered regardless. "I told them I was bringing home my boyfriend for Christmas so they could meet him. I even got Evan to agree, but we both automatically dismissed it once we broke up. Can you imagine if we hadn't? That would have been a disaster…"

He remained persistent in his questioning. "So you never said his name?" An idea had sparked in his mind, and though it probably wasn't the best idea considering how difficult he already found it to stay within their well-established boundaries, he thought it might be the perfect solution for her current problem. It would also force him to confront the feelings that had gradually been building up in him since he had first seen her during their first chemistry course and would possibly reveal if she felt the same.

"Fitz, what are you getting at here?" He had to conceal any kind of smile as he explained his plan to her…

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><p>"This isn't a good idea," Jemma whispered as her gaze skimmed over the familiar emerald hills, not knowing why she was using a quieter tone. They were alone in the back of a cab with an unknown man driving them to her countryside home in Ashburton, Devon, and it wasn't as though the driver was going to share their plan with her parents. "They'll be able to tell or they'll ask some question about some part of our relationship that I won't have the answer to and I'm really a terrible liar-"<p>

"Jemma." The word swiftly interrupted her worries, and she glanced over at Leo. He had dressed up nicer than usual in a white button-down, a grey cardigan, and a scarlet tie freckled with little Christmas trees to celebrate the season. Of course, he had refused to exchange his jeans for slacks, but given how much effort he had put into the rest of his appearance, it would have been nearly impossible for Simmons to care any less. It wasn't as though he looked unattractive usually; on the contrary, some traitorous part of her whispered, he was rather handsome with his sandy curls and those eyes that were indecisive of precisely what shade they were. Suddenly, she was very distracted by the urge to distinctly identify what color his eyes were – cerulean, or maybe cobalt? It wasn't until he raised a brow expectantly that she realized that he probably anticipated her to say something else and snapped out of whatever she had fallen into.

"Fitz." She took a deep breath, trying to focus upon the success of their ruse. Though she had occasionally thought about him a little differently before, something she had quickly dismissed due to their very close relationship despite both being attracted to the opposite gender, it had increased ever since he had made the suggestion that they pretend to date to appease her parents. "Maybe we could just tell them that we were dating, and now we're not but we've remained close friends. Then we wouldn't have to do any of those romantic gestures they would expect otherwise."

Something flashed across his expression at her words. Simmons almost would have recognized it as dejection, but that wouldn't have made sense considering the context of her sentence. If it was dejection as she suspected, it would mean that he was upset that she did not want to even pretend to have any romance in their relationship, and there was no way he would feel that way because they were only _friends, _something she had been repeating to herself constantly since they had left the Academy. She intended on further investigating the expression, but it flickered out before she could get a better look. "If that's what you think is best," he said, tone devoid of emotion.

She hesitated for a moment, considering the situation. It was logical for them to pretend to date, for it would ease her parents' interest in her social and romantic life, but some part of her, possibly even more logical than the first but also possibly even less so, was convinced it was a completely terrible idea. If they were to pretend to date, it would stir up emotions in Jemma that she had desperately tried to ignore for the past few months, and it would be beyond difficult to step back from whatever supposed romantic relationship they established while in England after they returned, if she was able to do so at all. The trick had potential to ruin their friendship.

But, another part of her, definitely less logical than the first two, just wanted to be near to him in that sense, to know what it would be like to date Leopold Fitz, even if they weren't doing so for real. It was the third part that won out in the end.

"I suppose going forward with the original plan is probably the best option. Mum and dad would be so disappointed in me if I wasn't another step closer to settling down."

The truth of her words resounded in the air, and Fitz, picking up on his friend's distress, leaned closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "They don't know what they are talking about." His voice was quieter than usual and softer than she had ever heard it, making his Scottish accent even more prominent. "Their daughter is a prodigy, second smartest in her class-"

"Second?"

"Yeah. Second." He gave her shoulders a squeeze and offered her a teasing grin, both of which made her stomach do strange twists, before he continued. "She's naturally clever, and she can make anyone smile. She's beautiful, and, uh…" His mind finally caught up with his mouth, and it caused him to stumble. "She's the furthest thing from a disappointment."

His words caused warmth to flare in her chest, and she was overtaken with affection for the man beside her. She would never know what she did to deserve him as her best friend, but she was immensely grateful that he was. "Thank you," she murmured before hesitantly placing a kiss upon his cheek.

Before he could properly respond, stuttering and blushing from her brief kiss aside, the cab came to a gradual halt outside the Simmons' home. She quickly paid him before Fitz could come to his senses enough to do so, and hardly a minute had passed until their luggage was sitting at the beginning of her driveway and the cab was puttering down the hills of the countryside. It wasn't until she laced her fingers through his that he once again turned to her, finally fully comprehending what was happening. "Ready?" Her voice was uncertain, but there was no way she could avoid it forever. He nodded in reply, still a little too flustered for words, and she led the way to the door.

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><p>Her parents seemed normal enough at first glance. Mrs. Simmons had Jemma's warm chestnut eyes, and Mr. Simmons had his daughter's cinnamon locks. Fitz absentmindedly suspected they would turn into loose curls like hers if his hair was longer. Overall, her parents didn't seem to be anything too out of the ordinary, and yet Leo was suddenly very intimidated by their presence. What if they didn't approve of their daughter dating him, thinking she deserved someone better? On the other hand, it wasn't as though it would be new information to him. He was constantly astounded that she continuously chose him above her other friends, especially her boyfriends. It wasn't intentional, he figured, but the amount of time they spent together made others feel as though their relationship with Simmons was jeopardized. Fitz knew he should feel bad, or at least sorry, for how selfish he could be of her, but she was the brightest thing in his world. However, he remained in a perpetual state of perplexity regarding why she had remained with him for so long. She was a beautiful optimist with a smile of gold and a laugh that demanded for others to join it, someone worthy of adoration and unwavering devotion. He wasn't.<p>

Yet some part of him desperately hoped her parents would disagree.

"Jemma, is this your boyfriend?" _So much for formalities_, Fitz mentally commented as he began to notice her mother's gaze scrutinizing him, making the judgments he feared. After she had come to a conclusion, she offhandedly stated, "You two would have lovely children." She seemed to exhibit no shame for the exceedingly blunt statement.

"Mum!" Embarrassment radiated from the single word, and Mrs. Simmons shrugged apologetically, winking at Fitz. The quick gesture caused the color flushing Jemma's cheeks to become even more apparent. He dismissed the blush, attributing it to the awkwardness of being told you would have cute kids with your very platonic best friend.

"Are you going to tell us your name?" Her father appeared to be addressing him, and it took Leo a few moments to process what he was asking.

Fitz cleared his throat and went to rub the back of his neck, a nervous habit he had developed a while ago but he quickly found his fingers still entwined with Jemma's. "'m Fitz," he finally mumbled before clearing his throat once again and speaking a little louder. "Leopold Fitz."

"Oh, so you're the Leo Jemma has told us so much about!"

"Mum!"

_Hold up. _Jemma Simmons had talked about _him_ to _her parents_? Fitz glanced over at her, a smirk pulling at the corners of his lips, and she bumped into him with her shoulder with more force than he would have thought possible for her slight movement. "Shut up," she muttered, trying to conceal a grin.

"You know, sweetheart, I don't remember you mentioning that you were dating Leo." Her father raised a brow at her.

"Didn't I?" Her inability to lie was beginning to manifest, and he knew that he would need to think of a quick excuse to get her away before she spiraled. "Because, I could have sworn that I said something the last time that we talked on the phone. Don't you remember-"

"Jemma?"

Relief overwrote her nervous rambling as he cut her off. "Yes, Fi- er, Leo?" It was odd to hear her address him by his first name; it felt strangely… intimate. Everyone had called him Fitz but his immediately family since he was young, so it was rather odd hearing his first name come out of somebody else's mouth.

"I believe we left our luggage outside, and, with all the technology in our suitcases, we probably don't want to leave them out there for very long. It appears the temperature is dropping." It had initially been an excuse just to get her away from her parents, but, now that he thought about it, it was probably a good idea to make sure the electronics were not subjected to a drastic shift in temperature. She nodded, and he opened the door with his free hand, keeping the other tangled with hers, and then closed it behind them once they were both outside. Her parents dismissed them without any further questioning, and he exhaled once they were outside, his breath crystalizing in the air. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, a little unsure of herself at first. "Yes, I believe so. They are being a lot more embarrassing than usual. I swear they aren't normally like this, and-"

"Jem. It's alright."

It was her turn to take a deep breath, clouds of vapor spiraling from her lips stunning him for a few seconds. Fitz then reluctantly pulled his hand apart from hers so he could perform the task they had escaped outside to do. "I think they believed us," she added.

"Of course they did." He hardly caught her quizzical look, preoccupied with lifting the luggage from the side of the road. "People assume we're a couple all the time. I mean, I suppose it makes sense considering how much time we spend together, and it probably helped that you talked about me…"

She groaned in embarrassment once again, burying her face in the Ravenclaw scarf wrapped around her neck. "I… it was once."

"Once?"

"Maybe twice. Point is, I just mentioned you briefly in passing. I didn't expect them to remember anything of it, and I wouldn't have ever imagined they would have actually brought it up." She nonverbally offered to take one of the suitcases with a tilt of her head, and his quick shake was all the response she needed to know that he wasn't going to allow her to do that. "I'm sorry if they put you on the spot in there. They just aren't really accustomed to me bringing boyfriends home."

"I knew what I was signing up for. It was my idea, remember?" Simmons pulled the door open for him as he dragged the suitcases through the doorway, rolling them down the hallway she lead them through before placing them on the floor of the living room. In the brief minutes they were away, Jemma's parents had settled into armchairs, _Love Actually_ playing out on the television screen above the fireplace.

When the supposed couple walked into the room, uniform smirks formed on the elder Simmons' faces, expressions Jemma had never seen before. "What? Is something wrong?"

"Look up."

Jemma and Leo did so in unison – _how else would they have done it?_ – and he had to restrain himself to keep from groaning. This was definitely not part of their plan. The small plant above them could impact their friendship even more than their ruse, and the white berries could demolish the barriers they had mutually constructed throughout their time at the Academy. He was possibly being slightly dramatic, but the mistletoe could be their demise. It would allow him to see what it was like to kiss her, something he might or might not have imagined a few times since they formally met, and then he would have to pretend as though he didn't want to do it again, as though all of his feelings for her were as platonic as he made them out to be. However, they couldn't just ignore it, much to Leo's dismay, because her parents were attentively observing how they were to approach the situation.

Jemma shuffled closer to Leo, and he couldn't help but notice every little detail about her. Her eyes appeared to be clouded with an emotion he could not describe, something that did not happen often, and the gold specks appeared to be brighter than usual. She ran her fingers through her hair, disheveling the curls she had tried to make perfect for her parents, and her cheeks were stained vibrant pink, even more so than earlier. Her lips were quirked slightly upward, and they were so close…

The proximity made him panic, and he adjusted his head so that his mouth landed upon her cheek opposed to her lips.

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><p>It wasn't as though she was disappointed or anything. That would imply that she had been anticipating it in the first place, and she had definitely <em>not <em>been excited for him to kiss her. It took only seconds for the dejection to settle into her chest, weighing her down. Any thought she might have had regarding their apparent romantic relationship carrying over past their stay in England had been utter nonsense anyway, and Fitz had just confirmed that he had no further interest in her outside of their friendship. That was fine. She was fine with that. It wasn't as though she had ever expected anything different… or hoped for it.

"I'm, uh, I'm not feeling so well." With that, Jemma dismissed herself from the room, refusing to meet the confused gazes of her parents or glance at the bewildered expression upon Leo's face. The kitchen suddenly seemed very appealing, and before Simmons was entirely aware of what she was doing, her hands were seeking out sugar, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, and salt from the pantry. She also pulled butter and eggs from the refrigerator, and, after a few attempts at trying to remember where everything she was located, she managed to locate the mixing bowl. Low voices drifted down the hallway, but she refused to put the effort into deciphering what they were saying. She was too busy trying to focus entirely on the physical work, preheating the oven and effectively creaming together the butter and the sugar, while ignoring her thoughts. Regardless of how much effort she put into it, her thoughts leaked through to her automatic baking setting.

She really shouldn't have been surprised, if she thought about it. There had been nothing in their relationship to suggest that they would ever become anything more than friends, and he had done nothing to imply that he would have any interest in that. However, the fact that he had suggested initiating a fake romantic relationship to appease her parents had also made her rather hopeful, even if she had not realized it at the time.

Jemma was beginning to understand that she was nothing but a friend to him. Given her affections that she had embraced sometime after he shared his idea with her, it was difficult to think about and even more so to accept. Regardless of how she felt, Simmons was willing to acknowledge that they would never become anything more because their friendship was the most important thing in the world to her. It had gotten her through the homesickness that had threatened to consume her during her first few months at the Academy, and then it had gotten her through everything that followed, including course assignments and heartbreaks and dorm room crises and finals. Jemma was so grateful that Leo had been with her whenever she needed him, and she could never risk what they had for some petty feelings.

Except they weren't petty, she contradicted herself as she began beating in the eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder, and salt. Fitz cared about her more than anybody else ever had, and he could make her laugh in her darkest days and smile when she felt like sobbing. The discussion between them was endless, spawning other conversations or arguments within itself, and he understood her on an intellectual and social level, something she had never imagined possible prior to her arrival at the Academy. What they had was special. It made her wonder why she had ever bothered dating other guys until she abruptly remembered that it was because they did not have a future beyond friendship, something that caused her heart to sink once again.

Simmons pulled a cookie sheet from the cabinet and began to place balls of dough upon it. She finished processing precisely what happened, his avoidance of kissing her on the lips, and she realized that she was probably expected to come out and interact with them by both her parents and Fitz, to act as though everything was fine. Why shouldn't it be, at least in her parents' eyes? It had been a casual peck on the cheek between a couple and nothing more, where to her it was the beginning of something she could never pursue. Before she was fully aware of time's passing, a dozen doughy spheres were pressed against the metal with no room for any more. She placed them into the oven, realizing her automated actions were not enough to fully distract her from what had happened. Actually, she wasn't entirely sure the baking was easing her stress at all.

She was considering starting another recipe, possibly cupcakes, when the subject of her thoughts walked into the room. "Jemma?" His gaze swept the room, falling upon the batter-encrusted utensils and half-full mixing bowl, before he stood in front of her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." The words flew from her mouth much too quickly to be convincing, and she diverted her eyes to the floor. There was a hesitant pause before she felt his fingers beneath her jaw tilting her face upwards. "I'm fine, Fitz. Really."

The way his brow drew together revealed to her that he did not entirely believe her, something that made her stomach plummet. He was aware that she was an atrocious liar and knew all her tells, meaning, if he was to ask about the specific situation, she would have no way to keep the truth from him. However, before she could blurt out some unreasonable excuse, his expression shifted to something she recognized as conflict and she faltered. "That's… that's not how I wanted it to go."

Confusion was etched into features, and her heart was pounding rapidly in her chest. She was beginning to reply with a baffled, "wha-" when she felt his insistent lips upon hers. He only maintained the contact for a few moments, and her head was spinning too quickly for her to properly respond before he pulled away. His expression was once again unreadable, his eyes a darker shade than usual, and it tugged at the bottom of her stomach.

The charged seconds ticked past, and he begin stepping away even further, the dejection that had been written across her face earlier now pressed into his. "'M sorry, Jem, I don't know what I was thinking, and-" It was then her turn to interrupt, and she was almost too eager to close the distance between them once again now that she knew what it felt like to actually kiss him. His hands settled upon her waist, pulling her even closer, and she wrapped her arms around his neck for the same reason. The kiss itself started slow and exploratory as they began to understand one another in this new way, but it didn't take long for him to begin initiating a much deeper, and more heated, kiss. Jemma's heavy breathing evolved into a breathy chuckle as she drew away, only distancing herself from him enough for their lips to no longer brush. "Leo?"

"Hm?" He appeared to be completely distracted by her, and it caused a smug grin to pull at her lips.

"My parents are here." He rolled his eyes overdramatically, and she was once again struck by the desire to determine exactly what shade of blue they were. Of course, if she was closer to him, it would be even easier to tell… Some portion of her brain started to once again process the sound of light conversation from the living room, and she recalled the reason why she had slightly withdrawn from him. "They are right down the hall."

"So?" Jemma was a little shocked at his audacity, but he continued speaking before she could comment on it. "I honestly don't think they would mind walking in on you snogging your boyfriend, not after how much effort they have invested in our relationship. It might even make up for their disappointment after our mistletoe kiss." He gave her a pointed look, and even she had to admit he had a decent point. Her parents were unusually interested in her social life, and the odds were that they would leave her alone for quite a while if they would have walked in on their most recent kiss… However, Jemma wasn't just going to admit he was right, not when she had broken away from him for this argument.

She was about to protest, claiming that the letdown mistletoe kiss was entirely his fault and hoping that would be enough to divert him from his current progression of logic, but her thoughts were scrambled as her brain finally caught the full meaning of his words. "Boyfriend?"

"Well…" For once, he was blushing as much as her, something that gave Jemma immeasurable satisfaction. "Yes. If you want to, that is. I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to. I just thought that, since you had-"

"Leo?"

"Yeah?" His expression wavered once again, controlled by fear that she suspected originated from the thought of her claiming this would be a one-time thing.

In her opinion, he should have known her better than that; Jemma Simmons was not one for causal flings, and she was not going to risk something as important to her as their friendship for a few kisses that would revert to the casual platonic relationship they had before. "Don't be daft. Of course I want you to be my boyfriend," she murmured before once again pressing her lips against his, hoping it would reassure any of his doubts about how she felt. They quickly fell back into their previously established rhythm as they always had, and her fingers tangled in his curls as one of his hands move to the side of her face. The fear that her parents would catch them still lurked at the back of Jemma's mind, but it was not important enough for any of her attention while he was kissing her like that…

The kitchen timer sprung to life, and the high-pitched beep of the alarm caused Jemma to step back in surprise. Leo immediately began moving towards her, more than happy to ignore the sound if it meant they could resume, but she walked over to the counter instead. "Jem? Where are you going?"

Wordlessly and still rather breathlessly, she slid a pair of oven mitts onto her hands. "The cookies are done," she told him, innocence tinting her words.

"But we were-"

The chatter that had occupied the living room had suddenly gone quiet, and she gestured with her head towards the entrance to the hallway. "Later." The word was brimming with potential and promises, as long as he was patient, and he nodded in response.

"Alright, Jem, but I'm holding you to that. _Later_."

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I hope you all enjoyed it! Please take a few moments to leave a review, whether it be constructive criticism or comments or a line you particularly liked - either way, they make my day!

Until next time!

~NN


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